{"id":61499,"date":"2018-01-15T10:20:33","date_gmt":"2018-01-15T15:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/smelling-your-lovers-clothing-can-reduce-stress-levels-according-to-new-study\/"},"modified":"2018-01-15T10:20:33","modified_gmt":"2018-01-15T15:20:33","slug":"smelling-your-lovers-clothing-can-reduce-stress-levels-according-to-new-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/smelling-your-lovers-clothing-can-reduce-stress-levels-according-to-new-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Smelling Your Lover\u2019s Clothing Can Reduce Stress Levels, According to New Study"},"content":{"rendered":"

Smelling Your Lover\u2019s Clothing Can Reduce Stress Levels, According to New Study<\/b>
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\"smelling<\/p>\n

Sniffing by Timmy Truck (Licensed\u00a0GFDL<\/a> \u2013 CC-BY-SA 3.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A new study\u00a0published<\/a>\u00a0in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology from the American Psychological Association reveals that smelling your partner\u2019s scent on an item of clothing reduces stress levels.<\/p>\n

CBS Local reports on a study of 96 women<\/a> who were given three different scents \u2013 one scent was that of their partner, the other the scent of a stranger, and the third a neutral scent.<\/p>\n

U.S. News reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cOur findings suggest that a partner\u2019s scent alone, even without their physical presence, can be a powerful tool to help reduce stress,\u201d Marlise Hofer, the study\u2019s lead author and a graduate student in the UBC department of psychology, said in a statement. Conversely, a stranger\u2019s scent actually increased cortisol (stress\u00a0hormone) levels for these women<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Researchers included 96 opposite-sex<\/a> couples<\/a> for the study and had men<\/a> wear a clean T-shirt for 24 hours. The men<\/a> were instructed to not wear deodorant or scented body products, and they couldn\u2019t\u00a0smoke\u00a0or eat foods that might otherwise affect their scent. To ensure the scent remained intact, the T-shirts were frozen after.<\/p>\n

Women then either had to smell a T-shirt that hadn\u2019t been worn, belonged to their partner or belonged to a stranger \u2013 without knowing which one they had. They also underwent stress tests, including a mock job interview and mental math tasks, in addition to giving saliva samples to test their cortisol levels.<\/p>\n

There was no research done on men<\/a> who have sex<\/a> with men<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A fascinating 2005 study, however, linked body odor to sexual orientation<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The study involved 24 heterosexual and homosexual men<\/a> and women<\/a> who for around nine days were subjected to a \u201cwash-out\u201d period when they used scent-free soap and shampoo and did not eat food with garlic, cumin or curry.<\/p>\n

After this, they wore sterile cotton pads under their armpits for a day. These were collected and stored to use as a bottled source of their body odour. A panel of 82 heterosexual and homosexual men<\/a> and women<\/a>, not including the donors of the armpit pads, were asked to sniff each bottled body odour and evaluate its pleasantness according to a set of criteria. In a study in the journal Psychological Science, the scientists found: \u201cHeterosexual males<\/a> and females<\/a> preferred odours from heterosexual males<\/a> relative to gay<\/a> males<\/a>; gay<\/a> males<\/a> preferred odours from other gay<\/a> males<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeterosexual males<\/a> and females<\/a> and lesbians<\/a> over the age of 25 preferred odours from lesbians<\/a>, relative to the odours from gay<\/a> males<\/a>; gay<\/a> males<\/a> preferred the odours of other gay<\/a> males<\/a> relative to lesbians<\/a>,\u201d they say.<\/p>\n

Dr Wysocki said the strongest finding was that gay<\/a> men<\/a> prefer the smell of other gay<\/a> men<\/a> and that lesbians<\/a> responded differently to body odour compared to heterosexual women<\/a>. \u201cThe overall conclusions are that the body odour you most prefer or least prefer does not depend on where it comes from but it also depends on who you are, in other words, your sexual orientation,\u201d Dr Wysocki said.<\/p>\n

The post Smelling Your Lover\u2019s Clothing Can Reduce Stress Levels, According to New Study<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Smelling Your Lover’s Clothing Can Reduce Stress Levels, According to New Study<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n